Who's Boss? Physiological Measures During Performance Assessment

Received: 13 July 2018 Revised: 26 November 2018 Accepted: 30 November 2018 DOI: 10.1002/mde.2997

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Who's boss? Physiological measures during performance assessment

Michela Balconi1,2 | Irene Venturella1,2 | Giulia Fronda1 | Maria Elide Vanutelli2,3

1 Department of Psychology, Catholic University of Milan, Milan, Italy Leadership in organizations consists of a complex process, which includes the inter- 2 Research Unit in Affective and Social personal relationship with collaborators. By using a neuroscientific approach, we eval- Neuroscience, Catholic University of Milan, Milan, Italy uated the effect of the presence of unidirectional versus reciprocal feedback 3 Department of Philosophy, Università degli (provided only by the leader or by both figures), as well as the assignment of a quan- Studi di Milano, Milan, Italy titative or just a qualitative assessment. Skin conductance level and response (SCL and Correspondence SCR), as well as heart rate (HR), have been recorded during a role playing. Results Michela Balconi, Department of Psychology, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Milan, revealed increased emotional engagement (SCL/SCR) during no rating and reciprocal Largo Gemelli, 1, 20123, Milan, Italy. condition, as well as a stressful response (increased HR) during rating and unidirec- Email: [email protected] tional condition.

1 | INTRODUCTION [HR]) showed important information related to different leadership style. Results highlight the importance of applying neurosciences to Leadership in the organizational field consists of a multifaceted pro- organizational contexts exploring processes related to manager– cess that takes place in a complex environment (Hannah, Balthazard, employee dynamics and communicative style. Waldman, Jennings, & Thatcher, 2013). The leader continuously needs In fact, it has been previously underlined that a proficient relation- to make decisions and to manage the new and changing situations in ship between the manager and the employee can directly affect the the workplace, which require an amount of unpredictability and risk efficiency in organizations (Hannah et al., 2013). For example, it has (Waldman, Balthazard, & Peterson, 2011). Such complexity does not been shown that more complex leaders show important managerial include only the leader's cognitive ability and personality, but also skills within their social environment, such as adaptive thinking, deci- the context, some specific features of the employees, and, more siveness, and positive action orientation (Hannah et al., 2013). importantly, the interpersonal relationship between these two figures, Also, it has been revealed that some interpersonal mechanisms which consists of a reciprocal interplay. As revealed by a recent work involving attachment within meaningful relationship (as in mother– (Venturella, Gatti, Vanutelli, & Balconi, 2017), indeed, it is very impor- child or romantic couples) could have important effects over some tant to catch the complexity of social relations within a managerial psychological factors such as self‐satisfaction (Brennan & Shaver, context by also including communication and emotional factors. In this 1995; Simpson, 1990) and well‐being (Blackburn & Epel, 2012; specific case, for example, it was found that the adoption of a cooper- LeMoult, Chen, Foland‐Ross, Burley, & Gotlib, 2015; Mikulincer & ative leadership style was more engaging by the employees, as Shaver, 2012; Pietromonaco, Uchino, & Dunkel Schetter, 2013). Inter- revealed by psychophysiological and electrophysiological indices dur- estingly, it has been hypothesized that similar phenomena could take ing different steps of the conversational shifting, including appealing place in the managerial field about the formation of significant work topics for both the parties involved, such as the company's mission, relationships and positive social dynamics. leader's or employee's personal change, etc. For example, the moment of performance assessment could be Managers were required to use two different communication very delicate for the organizational and interpersonal balance due to styles: authoritative versus cooperative. A conversational analysis per- the presence of a hierarchy. At this regard, an interesting issue relates mitted to identify main topics to interpret data. Results showed that to a different style of assessment, which can be quantitative or quali- the interview was more arousing for the employee than the manager. tative. In detail, it is possible to combine a narrative (qualitative) eval- Greater delta and theta electroencephalogram bands could denote uation together with a numerical one (quantitative), which is the positive valence of personal interactions and company mission topics. rating. Introduced in the organizational practice for supporting the Autonomic measures (skin conductance response [SCR] and heart rate employees to reinforce their performance (Dixon, Rock, & Ochsner,

2010), rating's efficacy has received inconsistent findings. In a previ- specific attitudes of the leader during a vision task. It consisted of ous meta‐analysis Kluger and DeNisi (1996) found that feedback eval- answering two questions about the future of their organizations, as uations led to performance improvement only in 41% of the time, and follows: (a) “Can you please describe your current plans for your to a worsening in 38% of the cases. A more recent approach, instead, organization, as well as plans for the future?” and (b) “As you look tried to underline how a qualitative evaluation could be more efficient towards the future, can you formulate a vision statement for your for employees, because it was found that they pay more attention in firm?” Then, statements have been coded from personalized to the case of narrative instead of quantitative statements (Smither & socialized visions. Results showed increased right frontal coherence Walker, 2004). A possible interpretation of this process was proposed in the case of socialized visionary communication. Such finding is by Rock (2008), who suggested that status perception and ranking important in that this capacity also has positive effects over followers' could be undermined by rating assignment, thus leading to fear, nega- perceptions of the leader in charismatic terms. tive emotions, and avoidance. Considering the importance to maintain However, previous work mainly focused on neuroimaging and the a positive and healthy work environment at the workplace, such evi- brain networks related to such dynamics (Balconi, Crivelli, & Vanutelli, dence is of great interest. 2017; Balconi, Gatti, & Vanutelli, 2018; Balconi, Pezard, Nandrino, & It has become evident, therefore, that a sound atmosphere based Vanutelli, 2017; Balconi, Vanutelli, & Gatti, 2018), whereas interper- on empathy, reciprocal listening, and a solid communication can sonal components involving emotional responses could benefit also assume a regulatory function within organizational interpersonal from other techniques about peripheral activity recording such as dynamics, considering both a vertical direction between leaders and electrodermal activity (EDA) and cardiovascular activity recording employees, but also a horizontal perspective among colleagues. This (HR). These methods, in fact, can easily detect some reactions related way, all the figures involved can be aware of how their emotional, to specific interpersonal processes such as empathy (Levenson & Ruef, cognitive, and psychological mechanisms could significantly influence 1992) and affective behaviors (Adolphs, 2003; Levenson & Gottman, others' reactions and behaviors, as well as the team's achievements. 1983; Vanutelli, Gatti, Angioletti, & Balconi, 2017). For example, To address these issues, we applied a neuroscientific approach. In differential emotional responses could be detected (Levenson, 1992), fact, although research into leadership and managerial issues has been as well as the way people are connected each other (Chaspari et al., significantly explored from an organizational point of view, as we indi- 2015; Vanutelli et al., 2017). cated before considering some recent research, our understanding of Moreover, autonomic activity recording is useful when dealing unaware reactions is still partial and incomplete. Indeed, only very with ecological settings like these, because they are robust to move- few subjective and relational processes are consciously and easily ment artifacts, they can be acquired with inexpensive portable accessible. By collecting only explicit data by questionnaires or inter- devices, they can be simply analyzed, and results are readily accessible views, in fact, conventional methods do not appear adequate any- (Balconi & Canavesio, 2013; Massaro & Pecchia, 2016). However, only more, because they are affected by several biases (Waldman et al., a few previous works applied autonomic activity to neuromanagement 2011). Conversely, neuroscience allows acquiring both “controlled” in an ecological setting. Considering again the recent pilot study on and “automatic” mechanisms and provides a new point of view over leader–employee interactions (Balconi, 2017; Venturella et al., 2017), the organization. More specifically, the field of social and affective it was possible to better explore the moment of performance review neuroscience seems the most suitable in our case, because it is of the employees by the managers and to find specific neurophysio- aimed at understanding the neural functioning during interpersonal logical or psychophysiological markers of emotional and cognitive relationships, the way people try to understand each other towards responses, as well as a comparison between authoritative and a common goal, empathic and emotional mechanisms, group dynamics, participative styles. However, the effects related to the feedback and so on. In our case, its declination to managerial issues has and its differential effect on different professional roles still need to been termed neuromanagement, or organizational neuroscience, be explored, as well as its interaction with the presence versus the and defined as an applied form of social neuroscience towards those absence of a quantitative rating. interpersonal behaviors that occur within organizational settings The activity related to the autonomic nervous system consists for (Butler & Senior, 2007). example of cardiovascular measures (such as HR) or EDA, such as skin In the last years, this approach has been significantly embraced to conductance level (SCL) and SCR. HR defines the number of heart investigate some important issues related to leadership. For example, beats per minute, which is based on the number of contractions of some studies explored interpersonal manager–employee relationship the ventricles. By a functional point of view, HR has previously been (Buckingham & Coffman, 1999). Here, the authors considered the associated with the valence of the emotional response (Bradley & phenomenon by which people are usually more motivated, and subse- Lang, 2000; Sequeira, Hot, Silvert, & Delplanque, 2009), with a signif- quently perform better, if managers support their strengths, instead of icant acceleration especially in response to aversive situations (Nagai, stressing their weaknesses. However, although this work touched on Critchley, Featherstone, Trimble, & Dolan, 2004; Palomba, Angrilli, & the potentiality of neuroscience to answer some intriguing questions, Mini, 1997; Solbakk, Reinvang, Svebak, Nielsen, & Sundet, 2005). only later studies duly adopted such methods. In detail, the leader's SCL and SCR, instead, reflect small changes in electrical activity of role was a great source of interest, with regard to transformational the skin generated by the sweat glands. These two measures are (Ashkanasy, 2013) and inspirational leadership (Waldman, Balthazard, sensitive to tonic and transient modulation of arousal responses, & Peterson, 2009). In this last case, for example, the authors explored respectively, which has been associated with emotion intensity: SCL the possibility to link electroencephalogram coherence to some reflects the general degree of activation (Malmo, 1959) whereas SCR BALCONI ET AL. 3 is typically used as an objective measure of emotional processing contribution by males were foreseen in order to reflect the real gender and attention (Damasio, 1994; Frith & Allen, 1983; Öhman & composition. Each dyad was composed of a leader and an employee, Soares, 1994; Soares & Öhman, 1993) in response to specific events who was subjected to evaluation or, in other cases, was the evaluator or stimuli. of his/her leader, and vice versa. For six dyads, the evaluation process In the present research, we used these indices to explore the was characterized by the presence of a quantitative rating, and for specific moment of annual review as an example situation of four dyads, by no rating. Subjects came from different companies manager–employee interaction. In detail, we aimed at investigating belonging to different market fields: a transport company, a technol- in depth the differential responses provided by two professionals ogy services company, and a training agency. Because we were only because of their organizational role (role variable) during a critical interested in the interpersonal engagement between the leader and moment such as the evaluation. Also, although previous research the employee, we did not distinguish among different kinds of compa- mainly focused on the employee's assessment (Venturella et al., nies for the present analysis. All subjects had normal or corrected to 2017), we were interested in investigating also the process by which no normal visual acuity. A history of psychiatric or neurological the employee assesses his/her boss. In fact, we meant to investigate diseases, the presence of cognitive or sensory deficits, ongoing con- the differential effects related to the presence of a unidirectional current therapies based on psychoactive drugs, or clinically relevant (where only the leader provides a feedback) or a reciprocal (where stress level were all reasons for exclusion from recruitment. All partic- both the leader and the employee give an evaluation) assessment ipants voluntarily submitted to the experiment after being informed (feedback variable) according to the different institutional role. Also, about the research objectives expressed by the informed consent. we aimed at comparing two different conditions, which are the presence and absence of a quantitative rating (rating variable). To summarize, in the present study, we aimed at investigating the 2.2 | Procedure interpersonal organizational dynamics related to job evaluation through autonomic recording in paired manager–employee dyads. Subjects were asked to simulate an interview using the role‐playing Managers and employees were asked to simulate an interview technique, which was anyhow focused on real evaluations during the where they were required to produce an evaluation of the efficacy interaction between the subject in their companies' buildings to guar- of the other's job performance. In some cases, only the manager was antee the ecological validity of the study. During the interview, the required to assess the employee's performance, whereas in other leader was asked to evaluate his/her employee about his/her work cases, the employee could replicate and disclose his/her opinion about performance, and, in some cases, the employee was asked to evaluate the boss. This way, it was possible to consider both the effects related his/her leader. The role changing was implemented to isolate the role to the role and to unidirectional or reciprocal feedback. of being assessed from the role played in the company (leader or Two distinct conditions have been thus compared, which are the employee). The interview time intervals were not given; thus, each presence and absence of a quantitative rating about performance. In dyad could take the necessary time. Every interview was video‐ addition, feedback variable was modulated, with the presence of a recorded for the entire session, and the two individuals could easily feedback given by both the component of the dyad (leader and interact face to face, seating next to each other. During the whole employer) or only in the case of one component of the dyad (leader). interview development, autonomic measures were continuously According to what was discussed so far, we expected a more positive recorded. The total duration of the interview was about 1 hr. emotional condition in the absence of a quantitative rating in the form Within a wider evaluation, a quantitative rating was also asked in of increased electrodermal responses (increased SCR and SCL). On the the rating condition. For the performance evaluation, a five‐point scale other hand, we hypothesized a more negative and stressful response was used, from 1 (completely inadequate skills for the role)to5(excellent from the employees when being rated, with increased HR measure, skills, at the highest level in every situation). Avoiding the use of rating which was found to be a specific marker of immediate and unpleasant was, instead, the feature of the no rating condition, in which partici- situations. Moreover, a significant positive effect was supposed for no pants had simply to explain by words the observations made about rating condition in both leader and employee and mainly when they the performance for the same skills treated in the rating condition. A were permitted to give feedback (presence of feedback for both final self‐perception debriefing was provided at the end of the inter- leader and employer, with higher emotional engagement and view to verify the reciprocal evaluation of the interaction context increased SCR and SCL), in contrast with rating condition, which will and the qualitative feedback by participants. This procedure was show increased stressful effect in both leader and employer when designed to understand if subjects really got into the part and had they give or receive feedback. pertinent self‐perception and metacognitive insights about the experience, and subsequently, if they could be taken into account for successive analysis. This phase of debriefing was conducted as 2 | METHODS an additional qualitative interview in which participants could express their thoughts and emotions about the experience. The ultimate 2.1 | Sample goal of this procedure was to verify the general perception of the task as well as the features of the social interactions. Moreover, A sample of 10 dyads (20 subjects; M = 43.13; SD = 8.02; 83% male) textual/communicative data could thus be used to better qualify and was recruited for the study. The gender differences with a higher frame the psychophysiological data. 4 BALCONI ET AL.

2.3 | Autonomic measures recording For what concerns SCR, significant effects emerged for rating main effect ( F [1, 19] = 8.43, p ≤ 0.001, η2 = 0.38) and for rat- For each dyad component's autonomic measures recording, two ing × role × RF interaction ( F [1, 19] = 8.02, p ≤ 0.001, η2 = 0.36). different devices were used. Biopac MP 150 system (Biopac Systems To better understand how the role and the presence of rating and of Inc., USA) continuously recorded ECG in lead1 from two electrodes a reciprocal feedback modulated SCR response, post hoc statistical positioned on the lower wrist, with the positive pole on the left arm comparisons were performed. Such procedure revealed a significant and the negative pole on the right one. The ECG signal was sampled increased SCR for the no rating condition (irrespective of the institu- at 1,000 Hz with the Biopac Acknowledge 3.7.1 software (Biopac tional role) as compared to rating condition (respectively F [1, Systems Inc., USA) and was converted to HR (beats per minute, 19] = 9.55, p ≤ 0.001, η2 = 0.41; F [1, 19] = 8.31, p ≤ 0.001, bpm). The signal was lowpass filtered at 35 Hz and highpass filtered η2 = 0.37). In addition, for the no rating condition, a further increase at 0.05 Hz. The electrodes for SCR and SCL (electrodermal activity was revealed in presence of RF compared with absence of RF (for or the electrical conductance of the skin expressed in μS) were both leader and employee; respectively F [1, 19] = 7.90, p ≤ 0.001, placed on the palm of the nondominant hand according to a bipolar η2 = 0.35; F [1, 19] = 9.98, p ≤ 0.001, η2 = 0.42). Finally, within these montage. The signal was sampled at 1,000 Hz and lowpass filtered conditions involving the absence of a quantitative rating and the at 10 Hz. presence of a reciprocal feedback, the effect was even more prominent for the employee than the leader ( F [1, 19] = 9.02, p ≤ 0.001, η2 = 0.40; Figure 2a). 3 | RESULTS Similar results were also found for SCL, with rating main effect being significant ( F [1, 19] = 7.78, p ≤ 0.001, η2 = 0.36), with higher To explore if and how the psychophysiological indices varied SCL for no rating condition. In addition, rating × role × RF interaction according to the different experimental variables, three‐way analyses effect was significant ( F [1, 19] = 7.50, p ≤ 0.001, η2 = 0.36). As shown of variance were applied to psychophysiological (SCR, SCL, HR) by post hoc procedure, higher values emerged in the no rating condi- measures as dependent variables, one each, with rating (rating, tion than the rating one (respectively F [1, 19] = 8.40, p ≤ 0.001, rating/no rating), reciprocal feedback (RF, yes/no), and role (role, η2 = 0.38; F [1, 19] = 9.19, p ≤ 0.001, η2 = 0.41), specifically in the leader/employee) as independent variables. Greenhouse–Geisser case of RF for the employee than the leader ( F [1, 19] = 9.11, correction of degrees of freedom was applied to analysis of variance p ≤ 0.001, η2 = 0.40; Figure 2b). outcomes when needed. Simple effects for significant interactions About HR, rating × role × RF interaction effect was significant were further checked via pairwise comparisons (contrast analyses for ( F [1, 19] = 7.90, p ≤ 0.001, η2 = 0.36). Specifically, significant repeated measure), and Bonferroni correction was used to reduce differences were found between the leader and the employee: In fact, multiple comparisons potential biases. Furthermore, the normality of the employee showed higher HR than the leader in the case of rating the data distribution was preliminarily assessed by checking kurtosis condition and in the absence of RF ( F [1, 19] = 8.34, p ≤ 0.001, and asymmetry indices. Only statistically significant results will be η2 = 0.40; Figure 2c). discussed (Figure 1). No other standard comparison was statistically significant.

FIGURE 1 Autonomic measures recording with a double device apparatus for heart rate, skin conductance level, and skin conductance response recording [Colour figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com] BALCONI ET AL. 5

Second, a rating × feedback × role effect also emerged in a way that, in the absence of rating, the reciprocal assessment was characterized by higher responses with respect to the unidirectional situation for both the leader and the employee, but especially for this last one, in terms of SCR and SCL. In parallel, increased HR responses emerged for the employee during the rating condition when there was not the possibility to replicate to the feedback. For what concerns the first result, according to our hypotheses, it could be possible to interpret the increase in electrodermal indices as a higher emotional engagement between the two individuals. In fact, SCL and SCR responses are considered sensitive measures of tonic and transient modulation of sympathetic arousal responses, respectively. SCL reflects the general degree of activation and decreases during, for example, rest and sleep (Malmo, 1959). SCR, instead, is typically used as an objective measure of emotional processing and attention (Damasio, 1994; Frith & Allen, 1983; Öhman & Soares, 1994; Soares & Öhman, 1993). Although previous work underlined increased arousal activation for negative emotions with respect to positive ones (Cacioppo, Berntson, Larsen, Pohlmann, & Ito, 2000), further research found significant arousal modulation also during strong positive situations including pleasure (Salimpoor, Benovoy, Longo, Cooperstock, & Zatorre, 2009), enthusiasm (Shiota, Neufeld, Yeung, Moser, & Perea, 2011), but also positive rewarding exchange (Sharpe, 2004). On the other hand, the rating condition was characterized by increased HR, which has been associated with the valence of the emotional response (Bradley & Lang, 2000; Sequeira et al., 2009), in particular during negative situations (Nagai et al., 2004; Palomba et al., 1997; Solbakk et al., 2005). Considering our hypothesis and what was already discussed by Rock (2008) about rating assignment, this specific condition seems related to negative and avoidant emotions. One possible interpretation is that the assignment of a ranking, and subsequently a comparative position, could be associated with insecurity and a threatening feeling. Thus, the increased electrodermal activity during the no rating condition characterized the physiological responses of both roles. This is of particular interest because FIGURE 2 (a) Skin conductance response, (b) skin conductance level, the absence of the necessity to provide a rating could be beneficial and (c) heart rate values as a function of rating/no rating (R/NR) and and positive also for the leader, thus leading to a more symmetrical reciprocal feedback/no feedback (RF/NF) factors [Colour figure can be and cooperative social exchange. Moreover, aside from organizational viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com] research, this kind of affective synchrony was explored in previous 4 | DISCUSSION social and clinical studies: In particular, similar methods have been applied to assess the quality of interaction referred to mother–infant The present work aimed, by applying a neuroscientific frame, to inves- communication (Ham & Tronick, 2009), couples' affective exchange tigate the psychophysiological responses of leaders and employees (Ekman et al., 2012), and psychotherapy research (Marci, Ham, Moran, during unidirectional or reciprocal performance evaluation. Three dif- & Orr, 2007), where results revealed that the two parts had signifi- ferent variables have been considered, which are the organizational cantly more positive social–emotional responses during high auto- role (role variable), the differential effects related to feedback (feed- nomic concordance, which has thus become a key marker of social back variable), which could be provided by both the components of engagement (Hernandez, Riobo, Rozga, Abowd, & Picard, 2015). This the dyad (leader and employer) or only in the case of one component idea can be applied to both the positive engagement related to (leader), and the presence or absence of a quantitative rating (rating increased electrodermal responses and the stressful condition of variable). Such variables have been included considering their potential rating assignment (increased HR). effect on the psychophysiological wellbeing at the workplace. However, considering the second interaction effects, more A first significant result concerned the rating variable: Indeed, detailed specificities can be observed. In fact, despite the presence increased electrodermal responses (both SCR and SCL) emerged in of a similar profile in both roles, the employee proved to benefit more the absence of a quantitative rating, whereas during rating condition, from a cooperative and symmetrical exchange. This was signaled by increased HR was observed. increased EDA during the no rating condition and by increased HR 6 BALCONI ET AL. during the rating one. Such result is consistent with previous evidence: REFERENCES For example, Kreibig, Gendolla, and Scherer (2010) found increased Adolphs, R. (2003). 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